


Weapon of Choice

by snowynight



Series: Changeling [3]
Category: Marvel
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-31
Updated: 2012-08-31
Packaged: 2017-11-13 05:53:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/500209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowynight/pseuds/snowynight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adapting to a life back in human society after years of slavery in faeries' hand, Steve and Tony find out that danger and temptation still follow them everywhere. Is the strength of their relationship strong enough to let them through the turmoil?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Weapon of Choice

**Author's Note:**

> Written for scifi bigbang. See the beautiful art: <http://evian-fork.livejournal.com/106548.html>

The police station was busy today: the sounds of interrogating suspects , cops typing on the computer keyboard and people walking, stumbling or rushing around formed the base tune of the station. The too strong lime light, the smell of cigarette smoke, alcohol from the drunk apprehended from last night formed the atmosphere . Steve wasn’t used to it. But this was his first day on job. He didn’t want the sergeant and his patrol partner to notice it. In the faerie realm he escaped from, there was just a long stretch of snow and loneliness as his companion. Here there were so much noise and people. And he couldn’t share it with anyone other than those who shared his fate, because no one would believe him. It was only his longing for his home to bring him back, and he was determined to keep it safe. That was why he chose to be a cop.

“Steve Rogers, right? I’m Officer Sharon Carter. Your patrol partner,” a blonde woman made a beeline  towards him, her stride long and firm.  She was good looking, her uniform tidy and neat. Steve briefly thought about  his time where a female officer was definitely not the norm, and felt glad for the change. “Come with me. We have a job to do,” she said.

In the patrol car, Steve looked at the street scene from the window . There were crowds of people coming and going, even when the night was deep. The night illuminated by light from billboards and buildings. It looked beautiful and energetic, but Steve wondered what lurked in the dark corner. He felt a sense of duty and anticipation. Finally he could put his police training to work and fulfill his duty.

Officer Carter said, “I think your lecturers already told you, but the fact is, if you expect high speed car chases, serial killers, action film cop scene like that, you’ll be deeply disappointed. Most of the nights came by dealing with TV burglars, noise complaint---” Then her words were interrupted by a call . She answered it and said, “Well, speak of the devil. There was a noise complaint case around the corner.” Steve straightened himself. It might be a minor issue, but it was a case.

The police car parked on a street in front of  the building, Carter and Steve showed their badges to the superintendent, and took the lift. They arrived at the apartment door and a big woman was already there , loudly complaining, “Why’re you so late? I don’t know what’s wrong with them, always so noisy. It just quiet down now.”

Carter said, “We’ll deal with it, Madam.”

The woman said, “You’d better to, otherwise I’ll complain to your superior . How can I sleep with so much noise? I need to get to work early tomorrow, not like...”

“We understand, Madam. We’ll reach your neighbour and advise them. Now...” She knocked on the door the big woman pointed to. “Sir, Madam? NYPD here.”

There was no response for a while. Steve and Sharon looked at each other during the eerie quiet atmosphere. Then the door was opened.  There was a short and stout woman at the door . But what caught Steve’s attention was the blood on her and the axe in her hand. There was a strong smell of blood . Steve pulled out his gun as discreetly as he could and noticed that Carer did the same. Steve was getting nervous. It wasn’t what he’d expect when the door was opened. He was hyper-aware whether of the moves the woman would take. Would there be another attacker in the house?

“Please put down the axe, Madam,” Carter said.

The woman stared at them for a moment, then she rubbed her eyes, did a double take, and said, “Please come in,” She waved and stepped out of the way.

“Maybe you can hand us the axe?” Carter asked gently. Steve was ready to shoot at any time for any unusual move .

“Oh,” the woman said. She dropped the axe on the ground, making a loud sound. “Come in.” Steve was more relieved, but he was still on guard. Anytime the woman might flip and attack. The training drilled in his mind returned to him, “The first rule was to ensure the arrived officer and the victims’ safety...” There might still be hope for the victims, despite his intuition telling him the otherwise.

“Madam, do you...” Steve said, then he paused because he didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t exactly in the police manual, but then the procedure did say that they should ensure the crimes scene  and the personnel here’s  safety. He kept a calm voice and inconspicuously blocked her way so that she couldn’t get a weapon again.

“Yes, I killed my husband. Chop chop chop chop the last man's head!” she said, “Oh, my daughter too.”

Steve was horrified at the casual manner the woman said . Wouldn’t there be more... emotion for killing the people dearest to you?

“Then Madam, you ‘re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?” Steve’s hands sweated .

“Yes? No? Why does it matter? You want to put handcuffs on me, right?”

“Madam,” Steve tensed, ready for any of her possible action. His hand was still on the gun. 

“All right,” She put out her arms, and Steve put the cuffs on her . Steve looked at Carter, who nodded at him so he stepped into the apartment. Immediately he knew what the smell came from. In the living room  lay a man’s body with his head chopped to be indistinguishable . What could make someone angry enough not only to kill her husband, but so completely destroy his body this way? There was also a similar smell coming from a room with its door half open. Was there another victim? Steve desperately wished that there was a survivor behind the door, but with any second delayed, the hope became more diminished. He checked over the room and found another with the head crushed. Definitely beyond hope. When he left the apartment, Steve closed the door to secure the crime scene. Carter told him that she had already  called for paramedics and reinforcement.

The paramedics arrived after Steve and Carter assured them  that the apartment was safe now. The medical examiner arrived , followed by the Homicide detectives, who arrived in their black suit, and one of them said, “We’ll take over from now. Report on the situation please.”

Steve tried to be as concise and informative as he could. The detective nodded and assigned him as the station officer to secure the crime scene. Steve nodded and started to record the necessary people moving in and out of the apartment. Tapes were set up to mark it as a crime scene. The neighbours went out of their home to peek, and Steve politely but sternly avoided them from coming near.

Steve watched the people in action. The homicide detective questioned the woman while the examiner checked over the bodies. Steve thought about the fear, panic and shock the victims must have felt and his heart felt like a piece of lead. There was something extremely sad to be murdered by the people supposed to love and take care of you. Steve stood aside so not to block their way, and went to Carter, who stepped aside. He was about to think of informing the victim’s family, and he realized that there was probably none. Maybe it’d be better, to not have a person returning to find that your family murdered each other, and your home a crime scene.

“You handled it well,” Carter said.

Steve felt that he had no words to respond. The scene was a bit surreal. When he heard of the call, he thought it was just a simple routine matter, but this... He wondered why the woman killed her family, and asked aloud.  
“Who know? It’s Homicides’ job now. We need to go back to the street after filing the paperwork.”

When they were leaving, Steve could hear the big woman complaining, “So now I can’t sleep at all this night. So many...” He didn’t quite know what he thought of it.

When they finished completing the paperwork and were back in the patrol car, Carter looked thoughtful. Steve wanted to ask why, but he didn’t know whether it was appropriate. Finally Carter broken the silence. “You have to remember that to us as cops, there’s nothing regular on patrol. This... Better get used to it quick.”

Steve and Carer finished their shift on patrol. They apprehended a thief climbing down from the building wall, took her back to the station, and filled a lot of paperwork. But the face of the woman was struck firmly in his mind.

He was used to death at the war front, but this... in his home city, at a peaceful time, done by a mother and wife to her family... somehow he was reluctant to accept it.

After the night’s duty was over, Steve returned to the Stark Mansion and was welcomed by Jarvis .

“How’s things, Mister Rogers? The breakfast ‘s ready in the kitchen.”

“I’m all right, Jarvis. Has Tony gone to work?”

“Mister  Anthony hasn’t showed his face yet, but he’s inside.” Jarvis said.

“Thank you, Jarvis.”

“You’re welcome, Mister Rogers.”

Steve went to the kitchen and found that a full breakfast was waiting for him. The long night of work made him hungry and he started to eat. The war taught him to appreciate food whenever he could, because you never know whether you can live to see another meal.  And the food here: creamy omelette, crispy bacon and sausages were cooked just the way he liked .The kitchen was bright, neat as usual.  Slowly Steve started to relax in the familiar welcoming environment. The night’s stress and tiredness seemed to wash off him gradually.

Then he saw Tony coming into the kitchen, yawning. Steve poured and handed him a cup of coffee from the pot, knowing that Tony wouldn’t function before his morning drink.

Tony gulped it. Then he smiled, “Welcome back.”

“You’re early. Did you sleep well?” Steve looked at Tony, trying to decide whether Tony had an early morning or just burnt the  midnight oil.

“Definitely,” Tony said, putting down his cup.

Steve hugged him lightly, saw the dark circles under Tony’s eyes and felt the tension in Tony’s body, but he didn’t say anything. It was just a harmless white lie.  
   
They settled down at the kitchen table, and Tony started to eat his breakfast. After a while Tony stopped and said, “Something happened to you. Do Tell.”

Steve wasn’t surprised that Tony could see through his mood, but the matter in his mind was really not suitable for a breakfast topic, so he only said, “You’re right, but... let me tell you later”

“All right,” Tony said.

* * *

  


Steve was right that Tony hadn’t gone to sleep, but he might not have figured out what Tony was doing in the time. If he knew the truth, he might be surprised.

Tony was studying magic.

Tony hated magic. It was so unpredictable, so messy, so contrived. It followed a logic of its own but full of loopholes and hidden clauses. It also reminded him too much of the time he spent in faerie realm, where he desperately needed to figure out the overly-complicated pattern to find a way to escape.

But he was willing to put away the uneasiness to acquire the knowledge, not only to equip himself against the faerie, not only because knowledge is a weapon he was used to wielding, but also he needed to protect the people he loved. Jarvis. Steve.

He could still remember the scene clearly: surrounded by AIM agents at the park, Steve fell to their attack. Tony was so sure that Steve was dead. Then the AIM agents asked for powerful weapons in exchange for Steve’s life. At one dark moment he wanted to build the weapon the AIM agents wanted, only to destroy them. He wasn’t sorry when Steve was back and all the AIM agents were locked up.  .

It also shook the foundations  of his world. He already knew that he had to be on guard from the faerie for his entire life, to be cautious of the fetch who might harbour ill intentions against him. But a mortal might cost him the life of his love---this was something. Then Steve still insisted on being a cop ---because of his noble nature to protect and serve, obviously--- despite all the danger, despite Tony’ protest.

He often dreamed  that one day he would return home and found that the people he loved were snatched from him, their cries barely heard, and the house was full of blood red moths. When he woke up, heart beating, body sweating, he could swear he saw the lines of red liquid on the floor.

He knew he was dreaming. This didn’t make him feel better. He rolled himself on  Steve, because Steve, so used to being alone, detected tenseness and stillness from Tony as a sign of danger. Tony  lay on him, feeling his warmth and his breath on himself, and only after then he could fall asleep again.

He was too weak. And he would do anything to put his world back in his control again.

Hence magic.

The Faerie ‘s power of magic came from the ancient agreements made between the Faeries and living embodiments of the natural world. However, as changelings were touched by the faeries, they could have access and control most of the magic too. It seemed ironic that the slaves could wield the master’s weapon against it .  
   
Each Contract  a collection of related powers, or clauses, which were agreed upon in the same bargain. There was a magical price for each contract. Every clause has a "Catch", a loophole in the original agreement which allows use of the power without the magical price having to be paid.

Apart from Contracts, another interesting thing he found was that changelings were able to use the faeries' connection to fate to bind mortals and changelings into pledges, agreements which were infused with magical cost and supernaturally enforced by the rules of Faerie. Both sides had to uphold their end of the bargain , but Tony was sure that he could  make agreements which favoured himself.

Tony just needed to figure out the loophole and calculate the price. It was what a businessman did. He had learnt the best of finding and exploiting loopholes from the best of persons, his faerie slave lord.

After a night’s study, Tony yawned and went to the breakfast table. He saw Steve and could sense that something was wrong. He might need to go to work, but he would find out what happened to Steve. 

When he was back to the company, his personal assistant Pepper Potts was already there. She was professional and capable, and her sharp glance made him worry that she would find any inconsistency between the fetch and him. “Mr. Stark, your schedule’s here.”

This was a busy day. Tony would rather spend his time back in the workshop tinkering with new projects than doing paperwork and numerous meetings. It was ironic that that he was so used to working on his craft that even back to the mortal realm, he was doing what his faerie slave owner forced him to do. However, in his own workshop with the time and freedom to doing his own work, he felt that he was reclaiming something he once loved. While he was planning new and exciting things to keep his company going, he was also working on a secret technology project that may tip the balance in favour of changelings in a fight against faeries.

He would use every weapon in his arsenal, every knowledge he could get his hand on, every tricks in his sleeves to protect people he loved. They’d be safe.

There was no otherwise .

* * *

  
Compared to what happened yesterday, Steve was relieved to find that this day was relatively  quiet. The good things he did reminded him why he decided to become a cop after returning to the mortal world.  Sure, they needed to settle another noise complaint case, and when they arrived, the caller nearly broke into a fight with the one she complained about. (Steve jumped a bit when hearing  that there was another noise complaint case. He was glad that Carter didn’t seem to notice.) Both people involved had a short temper, and it required delicate negotiation to set them apart and let them agree to peace for now. They also answered a call that a girl’s cat was trapped between two building’s walls and needed a lot of time to get it rescued. But the girl’s grateful grin was its suitable reward. He was pretty much settled for the shift to end this way when the patrol car passed by a bus stand and he paused.

They had passed by the same bus stand before, and then a woman and a little girl were already waiting there. Both of their clothes looked old and torn, and their hair dirty. The woman was pale and thin, but she held the girl so close to her that Steve wouldn’t be surprised they merged together. They looked so frightful that it left a strong impression on Steve. He would asked Carter if they could pull over, if they had not been in a rush to answer a call.

However, an hour passed,  and they were still there. They looked fragile and small on the busy street where people marched toward their destination. No one paid attention to them. Steve asked Carter if they could check on them, and Carter said, “Sure.”

They stopped the car by the road. The woman turned to the car and looked like a frightened rabbit, as if even a sound could set her off. Steve and Carter got out of the car and walked slowly toward them. Carter approached the woman and said gently, “Can we help you?”

The woman seemed to want to say something, but she froze and collapsed. Only Carter’s fast reflex prevented her from dropping to the ground. The girl stumbled to the woman’s side and whispered,” Mom? Mom ?”

Carter touched the child kindly and said in a soothing manner , “Don’t worry. Your mother and you’ll be all right.” Steve already called for an ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived, Steve looked at the girl to check up after her. Then he felt so much in shock that he nearly stumbled. The girl turned frighteningly pale and screamed, “Monster!”

Carter tried to comfort the girl, but Steve knew what ‘d happened.

The girl was a fetch, a fake left in place by a faerie after their abduction of people .

Steve didn’t know what he should feel. Should he feel repulsive because it was a fake left in the place of a girl probably kept at some evil faerie’s hand? Should he feel pity as the fetch was also a child and clearly not in good condition, probably not even knowing she was a fetch? A lot of emotions intertwined together and he felt something was struck in his throat.

They accompanied the ambulance to the hospital and Carter threw some weird glance at him,  probably for his barely hidden emotion shown on his face, but Steve was relieved that she didn’t ask further. He couldn’t explain what he discovered, because the faerie realm was a secret to the mortals. On the way the girl clung to Carter dearly. Carter gently asked her name, and the girl said she was called Amy.

“Amy, can you tell me about yourself? We’re here to help you. But we need to know more.”

The girl then told them their story. “My father drinks a lot. And he beat us. He’s always sorry but he beat us anyway. I’m  very scared whenever her father returned. He once broke my mon’s arm.”  Steve held his fist white and tried not to show his anger .

“So mum said we can’t stay. And she brings me out. She said we have to leave. But we don’t have money any more, and we’ve no food and water.” Then Amy paused. “Will you send us back to Dad?”

“No, we won’t.” Carter said.

After they arrived at the hospital, the woman was sent in the emergency room and Amy stayed with Carter because she refused to walk even near Steve. Steve didn’t know what to say. Was it the fetch’s natural response to a changeling in her vicinity? Was it a little girl’s natural response to a big man that can possibly hurt her? Was it both? Did it matter?

The doctor said, “It’s lucky that you get to us fast. The woman has a serious tulcer and might die if she were admitted later.”  
Carter asked if there were wounds and scars on her. The doctor nodded,  but she couldn’t say whether they were formed in the last 72 hours.

Then Carter squatted to ask Amy, “Where do you live?”  
Amy said, “eh... I don’t know.”

. Steve looked at Carter and wondered how to proceed. Then he tried the women’s shelter.

When Steve phoned the women’s shelter, he only got such response.

“Sorry, we can’t help. There’re no longer any spare room in the shelter,” The voice said apologetically.

They tried to reach the child foster service to find a place for Amy to spend the night, but no luck either. They couldn’t even find a person to answer the call.

Seeing that there seemed to be no other alternatives, Carter offered to take the girl home until the woman was conscious. She told the doctor to keep them in touch when the woman’s situation improved and left her contact details method..

Steve felt helpless. He became a cop to try his best to serve and protect people. But it seemed that he couldn’t even do much to help the people in need. He was angry too, as the girl reminded him too much of himself as a child, helpless to see his father succumbing to alcohol, and the family broken into ruin. He knew from his experience that people would only stop drinking when they wanted to, but the children were vulnerable. So many decades passed, and the society still could, or would let the children be harmed again and again. He felt his lips stiffen .

Carter patted his shoulder,  “The mother and the child ‘ll be fine. I’ll look to it.”

“Thank you. I just …”

“It’s all right to be attached when a child ‘s involved. I understand. I remember my first case... That’s why I prefer to be on beat.”

 They resumed the patrol and dealt with more cases, but Steve felt the dark cloud was still among them. When Steve returned home, he tried not to bring the job in, but he was worried that he didn’t do a good job when he saw Tony’s worried face .  


* * *

  
Although Tony was keen on his research, he couldn’t help but noticed that the job was doing something on Steve. His shoulders slumped a bit, the spark in his eyes got dimmer, and at night he got more silent and restless. Steve did share what’d happen on his job with prodding but Tony had a feeling that Steve wasn’t telling the whole picture. It only made him more worried.

Tony didn’t quite know what to do. He wasn’t Steve. He didn’t know when to say the right words, when to do the right thing, when to be the right person to comfort and support others. And Steve... Steve was always so solid, so reliable, and so naturally made someone feel that he could handle anything thrown at him. It wasn’t a situation he could solve with his mastery of technology, or with his ability to break apart things to rebuild again. That was why for the first time he brought his worries about Steve to Dr Habib , their psychiatrist, the one introduced to them when they first arrived at the mortal world. It made him a bit uncomfortable speaking out about such private matters, but collecting information and forming strategy was what he could do.

“Hi, Tony. You seem worried,” Dr Habib said.

“It’s about Steve. I worry about him.”

“Why?”

“I think his job’s taking a toll on him, but he just doesn’t say anything.”

“So you want to form a plan to deal with it. What strategies have you tried before to be useful? “

“I don’t know. Steve’s just... strong.”

Then what about providing a relaxed environment and treat him with patience?”

“It may work.”

When Tony left, there was a plan already in his head.

When Steve returned home from his shift, Tony held his hand and said, “We should have some quiet time together. I miss you.”

Steve looked a bit guilty, but Tony stopped what must be a string of apology with a light kiss on his cheek . He led Steve to the dinner table, where a meal was already on the table. Tony would have tried his hand at it, but the last kitchen incident had made Jarvis banning him from going there forever. So he gave Jarvis the night off  and ordered take out from the nearby restaurant.

They started to eat. Tony stole a meat ball out of Steve’s spaghetti. Steve stared at him while Tony pretended to ignore him. Then Steve reiterated by stealing from Tony’s dish. They started a small scale of food fight. Steve forked for Tony’s spaghjatti while Tony reiterated. Steve was fast and tactical in his attack,  while Tony played dirty. Finally Tony won because Steve was attacked by his good table manner. Steve smiled, and Tony was glad Steve looked more relieved .

When they finished the dinner, they washed the dishes and sat together on a couch in the living room watching a bad sci-fi flick together, which Tony made fun of it and Steve gleefully watched the spaceship fight. When they finished the movie, Tony looked straight into Steve’s eyes and said, “Tell me about your week.”

Steve visibly hesitated. Tony leaned toward him and said, “Good and bad and not, I’d listen.”

After a long while, words started to spill out of Steve slowly. The frustration, the anger, the helplessness, all obvious in his quiet voice. Tony just listened,  holding Steve’s hand, and ruffled Steve’s hair. Finally Steve stopped, looking a bit embarrassed and said, “Enough about me. I don’t want to bring it home.”

“It’s all right. You can share with me any time.”

Steve said, “What about you? You seemed to spend more and more time in the workshop. I worried about you.”

Tony paused and said, “I’m working on a project. Just started it. I’ll tell you later.”

“Remember to go out a bit, eat and drink regularly. I know your dedication. Just you need fresh air sometimes.”

“I will,” Tony said, and relieved that Steve didn’t push further. This was another thing he loved about Steve. Steve respected the boundary between people and never asked for what Tony couldn’t give.

They continued watching the movie and Steve laughed at one of the scene, this time a bit brighter. Tony playfully pushed him, only to be shoved back lightly. Then Tony pounced on Steve and tangled with him, feeling Steve’s hard muscle and body heat under his shirt.  Steve rolled over him and started to tickle Tony.

“Not fair!” Tony said. Then he reiterated by ticking on that spot of Steve’s shoulder. Steve laughed and squeamished. But he didn’t stop his hands. Tony laughed back, and he madfe the chance to get his hands under Steve’s shirt, to actually feel the tense skin, satisfied to see that the cheerfulness in Steve’s eyes turned to burning flames of lust. They returned to their room quickly. Tony smiled. This night was more successful than he planned .

The next day Steve went for work, and Tony returned to his office to deal with endless paperwork. After that he returned to the changeling shelter to find Carol and Wanda. He had tried his best to research on changelings magic, but while he hated to admit, he needed to consult experts and during the days they spent together, Tony learnt to trust these two women.

Carol raised an eyebrow when hearing his question, but she and Wanda answered his question with details. Carol and Wanda even offered to lend him their journals about their research. Then Carol talked about the Hedge.

“What’s it?” Tony asked.

“It’s the barrier between the faerie realm and the mortal world. Everyone of us has to go through it to escape so you have been there before. It’s dangerous, hostile, but something valuable could only be found there.”.

Tony thought of his tech project and was highly interested. He still shivered when he thought of what he encountered during his escape, but nothing paid, nothing gained. He squeezed every knowledge Carol and Wanda had of the hedge from them and started planning an expedition. Carol apparently saw through him, because she said, “We’ll go with you. Don’t think of going alone. You may be trapped there forever.”

Tony promised them. He was eager, but he wasn’t stupid.

Then Carol asked, “Does Steve know about it? Have you made a pledge with Steve?”

Clearly reading Tony’s silence correctly, Wanda said, “Steve’s your partner. You can’t leave him out of the loop for long. And when he find out, he’ll be more worried than now. Why don’t you start talking to him about a pledge first?”

Tony hesitated. He was so used to secrecy back before and during his life in faerie realm that it was against his nature to be frank about anything. And a pledge with Steve... It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Steve. It was... just a bit hard to bring up the topic.

When Tony was about to leave, Carol said, “Trust Steve. Believe that he can be more than you expect.”

Tony didn’t answer  


* * *

Steve ‘s mood was lightened after last night. He was very grateful of Tony’s attention and care for him. When he left for work after a fulfilling breakfast, he had a light smile and when Carter saw him, she smiled and said, “What brings you the good mood? A secret date?”

Steve blushed slightly when he thought of the night before. Carter saw his blushes, raised an eyebrow and said, “Who’s the lucky person?”

Steve replied, “It’s me to be lucky to have,” he paused. , “Him.” Then he waited for her response. He raised his chin and looked straight at her. It wasn’t in his nature to hide things.

Carter smiled, “One day we can have a double date, you and your guy, then me and my girl.”

Steve was a bit surprised and relieved. “It’ll be great.”

Steve’s good mood didn’t continue long when they received another call that a panicked Mrs. Teng reported to the police and said her son was abducted..

When they arrived at the apartment and knocked, the door was open abruptly and a tired-looking woman nearly fell out of the room. “You’re the cops right? My son’s taken!”

Steve and Carter followed her to what should be a boy’s bedroom. The wall was painted blue with toy planes and there was a basketball basket hung on the wall. But everything paled compared with the dead red butterflies bodies on the ground. There were so much that the whole ground was covered and Steve found no spare place to stand on. There was a very strong odour in the room.

Mrs Teng said, “I... Ah hei was here.. last night, but when I woke up to get him, .. he...” Her words broke out into sobbing.

Carter tried to calm her down and Steve looked at the closed window. It was very obvious who abducted the boy.

The faeries.

The realisation that the faeries could be so close to him … he didn’t know why he was so shocked by this. He knew the faeries could appear everywhere, but this...

But more importantly, he had a job to do.

The detectives came and took up the investigation. On their way back, Steve tried to suggest that this might not be done by a human, only to be met with a weird-out expression on Carter’s face. “Come on, you aren’t the type who believes in alien abduction, right? It’s not X Files . “ She leaned toward Steve and said, “Even if you really believe it, don’t say it aloud. The top brass don’t like it. You don’t want to be struck in the basement.”

“But how can a human do it?”

“Many ways I can think of. It’s just an abductor with overtly dramatic flair,” Carter said. She continued, “I know you ‘re especially moved by cases involving children, many do, but you’ll need to keep your mind sound. If you want to continue to be a cop, you need to harden your heart against the cases you see.”

Steve felt frustrated, and he started to understand why other changelings thought telling the police was useless. No one would take it seriously. There was a huge wall of unbelief and false reason blocking the public from the truth. There was supernatural evil lurking in the corner, and ignorance wouldn’t help you.

But when he was failing to convince the other cops of the real problem, a boy and a family suffered.

How could he overlook their pain?

Steve returned home and was surprised to see that Tony was in the living room instead of the workshop. When they talked about their days, Steve burst out, “I need to return. To save the kid.”

“It’ll be nearly impossible. You’ll probably never return to this world again. Besides, how will do you  find out where he is?”

“I just... I just can’t sit still and let people suffer.”

“Because you’re a good person” Tony said, then he paused for a long awhile and looked serious. “I want to show you something. Follow me.”

Steve did, and was led to Tony’s workshop. When Steve was wondering, Tony switched on his computer and said, “I ‘m studying something that may help.”

After Tony’s explanation, Steve finally knew that Tony was so busy recently because he was researching faerie magic. Steve was worried after hearing that because he  remembered what he read about magic in the stories posted on pulp magazines. In all the books, magic was dangerous, unpredictable and costly. What if these magic were like that too? Besides, they were connected to the faeries, which represented everything wrong to him.

Tony reassured him, “The magic’s neutral. We can use it as well as the faeries, and Carol and Wanda both ‘re magic wielder. It’s all right.” 

Finally Steve asked, “So you’re researching it for ...?”

“Knowledge’s a weapon, and I need to wield the weapon against the faeries. If you really want to do heroic in the faerie realm, at least you have to be equipped. Otherwise you’ll have no chance at all.”

After consideration of the issue, Steve had to accept it. “So what can I do to help?”

“You can...” Tony started to explain.  “There are force older than thje faeries, perhaps oldfer than the world, and they’re powerful. By signing a contract with them, you can share some of its power .”

Steve still found it uneasy to use the faerie’s power, but his pragmatic side accepted the fact that sometimes one needed to fight fire with fire.

“So what should I do?”

“The books show me that your experience in the faerie realm would shape your affinity to different forces. I have an affinity to artifice and animation. Let’s test out yours.” 

Tony took a stone and put it in Steve’s hands. Steve stared at him and didn’t know what to do with it and told it to Tony. Tony said, “You should just focus your mind on the stone, to see behind it, to call on the contract behind it. It’s a bit hard to explain, actually.”

Steve tried to do what Tony said. He touched the stone gently, examining its colour, its pattern and shape. He tried to keep his mind blank and thought only about the stone. But he got nothing, and the harder he tried, the more stray thought in his mind. He was going to tell Tony that when he got it.

It was a feeling hard to explain, but he felt that he could see the power behind the stone, the way all stones, big and small, brown and white, were connected and he could see the web how they were connected. It felt warm and easy to him and he tapped into the web.

“Changeling, what do you want to do with me?”  a clear and sturdy voice resonated in Steve’s mind.

Steve could see strings of words appear before him and although he didn’t know why, he could understand the language and knew that  it talked about the ancient faerie’s pact with stone.

“I would like to lend your power, by utilizing the contract, ” Steve said.

“It’d be granted, by the blood of yours and by my words.“

Steve didn’t know when he’d closed his eyes, but when he opened them again,  he saw Tony’s worrying face. Tony asked, “Is it all right?”

“Yes. I seem to have a … rapport with the stone. Like you said, hard to explain.”

“Then let’s try to summon the contract to see what power it gave you .”

Steve summoned the contract with the stone, and felt that  his strength increased beyond the usual. It could be handy, he thought. Then he asked Tony what his contracts brought to him. Tony showed him the effect of his contract with artifice. He picked a music box and broke it. Then he put his hand on it and the music box became whole and running again under Steve’s eyes.

Steve joked, “It’s the perfect power for you. It’ll save so much time”

 Tony smiled with pride .

“What about your contract with animation? Does it mean that you can make them move on their own?”

“I’ve not got so deep yet. But now when I touch things, I know their weak points and the most effective ways to break them.”

“You just like breaking and fixing things with your mind.”

Tony said with enthusiasm, “We needed to set up different test testing your power, to examine it in numerous situation before you put it to practical use outside. I need to...” He continued until Steve kissed him to shut him up  and then said, “Time for dinner now.” He wasn’t so keen on being Tony’s experiment subject.

That night Steve returned to the bedroom with Tony, a newly formed hope and determination in his heart. He would fight the faeries and protect those in need. If magic was what it required, so be it.  


* * *

  
Tony couldn’t sleep well.

He wasn’t sure if he should bring Steve into his research when it was at such an early stage. It was so unpredictable, with so many unknown factors, and it wasn’t in Tony’s nature to disclose his research when it was still in progress. But last night Steve frightened Tony. Tony knew that Steve believed that when there was a will, there was a way, and he had enough will to overlook danger to himself for a noble purpose, which could leave him to a fate worse than death. Compared to this, Tony’s insistence seemed relatively minor. It also pushed him forward more research. He had a real stake in his research now.

And Steve... Steve seemed to adapt better to the mortal world. With the right money and connection needed, Steve had a spotless record to be accepted by the police force, to protect the mortal world he loved. He had friends and expanded his social circle. Tony was happy for him. After so many years of isolation in faerie realm , Steve craved social contact .  But Tony missed the days that there were only Steve and him.

It further enforced Tony’s decision in furthering his research. Tony needed to be stronger and more useful. He needed to be able to be Steve’s back-up.

The next day Tony went to work and during the day, he was surprised that there was an empty time slot free of work in his schedule. When he asked Pepper, she relied, “It’s what normal people have: lunch hour. I’ve ordered a take-out for you.”

Tony cringed inside at the words “normal people”, but then he looked at Pepper, really looked, and saw concern in her eyes. Tony’s heart was warmed by it. He had Steve and Jarvis, maybe Carol and Wanda, but Pepper wasn’t paid to care about him. “Thank you ” No one could know that he had been abducted to a faerie realm and the experience totally transformed him to become not quite human, a changeling. But human friendship was nice.

This day Tony started to really pay effort to get to know Pepper. He had vaguely known her as a very capable and professional assistant before, but now he tried to know her ambition and her hope. It wasn’t easy. Tony wasn’t fast in knowing people and Pepper rightfully kept a distance. But it was the first time Tony felt that he could develop a more friendly relationship with someone new.

He realized at the same time that now that he had more people to care about , he’d have more weakness.

He needed power.

This day after work he went to the Vietnam Veterans Plaza. His research so far showed that emotion was what drive the changeling to use their magic, as it was the farthest thing from what the faeries knew. He closed his eyes and sensed the sorrow from the mourners. He took a bit of sorrow from one, grief from the another, absorbed self guilt from the third. These emotion ran into him, and felt heavy like a lead. Then Tony could sense that the emotion he absorbed were converted into magical energy. .

After that he returned to the Mansion. On his way several thugs approached him. He frowned. Steve’s fighting training was effective, but one point he stressed was that never to be cornered by multiple people, and he didn’t want to arouse unwanted attention.

“Hey, get away from this guy,” Suddenly a voice interrupted. It was a big guy with red hair, He had a loud voice that made Tony’s ear drum hurt.  When Tony  paid more attention, he found that the man was his driver.

The thugs looked at each other. Then one of them said, “Hey, don’t meddle in our matters!”

“It’s my matter when I see it. Besides, he’s my boss.”

The thugs attacked. The man punched one of the thug so hard that the thug dropped to the ground. Another thug took up a pipe lying around the ground and tried to hit him. But the man avoided the attack, disarmed the thjug, and used the pipe to hit him back.  .

“You can hold a fight,” the big guy said.

Tony wanted to express his gratitude. He wasn’t quite used to people coming to his rescue other than Steve, and his driver had every right to stay away from the fight. He stretched out a hand and said, “Thank you, Mr....Hogan” Tony checked out the information in his mind and he found out the name.

“Happy Hogan, Mr. Stark. You can just call me Happy.”

“Thank you, Happy.”

On their way back to the Mansion, Tony chatted with Happy. All employees of Stark Industries had their background been checked so Tony knew his basic details, but now the information came in flesh in a decent casual ex-boxer. Tony decided privately he should extend his social circle a bit. Though he wasn’t so sure, Happy seemed reliable.

Tony returned to the Mansion. Steve already told him that he would be late from work and didn’t have to stay up to wait for him. He ate his dinner with Jarvis and then returned to his workshop.

Tony studied the records about magic and the Hedge. The Hedge was a dangerous place, with its soul-tearing thorns and the hostile native monsters, which were not quite faeries. It was almost limitless in its labyrinthine vastness, and within its confounding expanse are countless dangers, including that of simply remaining lost forever. The changelings had far more reliable access to the Hedge than they had as humans, at the same time as it marked them of far greater interest to the denizens of Faerie. Tony felt fear out of his control just from thinking about it but there were much to be gained from the Hedge. There were goblin fruit, which had mystical properties, useful plants that could enhance the changelings’ ability, and enchanted items. These would be necessary for his project. The Hedge’s boundaries were both physical and mystical, actually entering the Hedge from the human world was never a sure thing. Doorways into the Hedge existed though, never truly closed.

That meant Tony needed to return to the place he first stepped on this mortal world. But before the journey, Tony needed to make preparation. He worked so late that he forgot time.

When he finally left the workshop, he was going to leave for bedroom. But when he saw Steve’s face, he knew that something was definitely wrong. “What’s happened?” Tony asked, when he threw himself on Steve. He led Steve to the sofa and sat on it together, waiting for Steve’s reply.

Then Steve told Tony about his day.  


* * *

  
Steve went on his day’s routine patrol, with his mind occupied with the missing boy. Carter noticed it and gently reminded him to focus on matters on hand and assured him that the case was in good hands. But he just  couldn’t put this off his mind. He knew what was probably happening to the child, and he wouldn’t want the experience to be on his vilest enemy, let alone a kid.

Imagine his surprise when he heard the child was back.

Steve would like to hope for the best. Maybe the boy miraculously escaped after such a short period of abduction, but he of any people knew that time had no meaning in the faerie realm and the boy needed help.

Steve didn’t like to think of the worst possibility.

After getting Carter’s agreement, they detoured to the mother’s apartment. They heard a loud argument before going near the apartment. Curious, they proceeded quietly.

Mrs. Teng said, “It’s not my son,” and pointed to the boy holding a detective’s hand. Steve recognized her as Detective Debbagh, who said in a frustrated voice, “It’s your son. Why can’t you recognize him?”

Mrs. Teng stuttered. “It’s just wrong. He may look like my son, but my son won’t say and do things like him. He’s just a stranger with a face as mine.”

Steve approached them and took a look at the boy. Then he confirmed the mother’s words. The boy wasn’t human. He was a fetch . Steve felt a burden in his heart.

The boy seemed to sense his presence too, and looked at him with fear, squeezing the detective’s hand hard. Then Detective Debbagh turned to Steve and asked, “What’re you doing here?”

Steve was thinking of an excuse when Carter said, “Just to show the police presence. Don’t mean to meet you.”

“Well, you two can leave now,” Detective Debbagh said.

Carter pulled Steve away while Mrs. Teng looked at them and pleaded, “Please help convince her that it’s not my son.”

Before Steve could say anything, Carter said, “Good bye, Madam. We’ll visit you later.” She pulled Steve away and said, “The woman’s probably wrong, but no matter what, don’t get into an argument with the detective. It can’t help anything.”

“But doesn’t a mother know her child?”

“You have an idealistic notion of mothers.”

“Carter, I have a gut feeling that things ‘re not so simple.”

“You and your gut feeling. Tell you what, the patrol doesn’t wait for anyone, but if you want to meddle in others’ matter, you can at least do it off duty.”

“All right.” Steve returned to the patrol duty. but the affair occupied his mind.

After the shift, Steve returned to the apartment and rang the door bell. There was no response. Then a neighbour went out and saw him. “Do you want to look for the woman? She isn’t here. She was taken to a hospital.”

“Why?”

“She got really aggressive with the detective and couldn’t calm down. The detective asked an ambulance to send her to the hospital. What a scene there was! It was more exciting than my TV show.”

Steve was getting nervous. Things were spiralling out of control. He managed to get out where the mother was sent to and went to the hospital. There he heard that Mrs. Teng was in a mental ward and he wasn’t allowed to see her.

Steve returned to the station and found Detective Debbagh. She was working on some paperwork, looked up and asked, “What ‘re you here for?”

“About the case...” Steve started.

“The child abduction case? The mother got really violent after you two left. We needed to subdue her and send her for a check up.”

“But it isn’t fair. The mother...”

“The mother’s probably too unstable to recognize her son. There’s a syndrome for it, thinking anyone’s an imposer.”

“Can’t  she her be right?”

Detective Debbagh said coldly, “It ‘s my case, officer. Don’t you have things to do?”

Steve could feel hat  others’ eyes were on them. He didn’t fear any confrontations, but he didn’t see any good coming out of more arguing to antagonize Detective Debbagh. Finally he left.

On New York’s street Steve walked directionless. His mind was quickly thinking what to do next. Then he phoned Sam. He was an experienced  social worker. Maybe he had network and resources Steve could tap into.

Sam sounded apologetically when Steve reached him. “I ‘m dealing with a case. Phone later?”

“All right.”

Steve walked back to the Mansion. Usually he would take a breath in the New York’s specific smell, enjoying the casual contact with the people on the street, joyful to be among the energetic New Yorkers and felt the connection to the people he both belonged to and swore to protect. But this time he wasn’t in the mood .

A boy was snatched away from his home and family in the faerie realm by the faeries, possibly enduring unimaginable torture and slave labour while Steve wasted away his day. Steve’s torture was hard enough, not to mention it was happening to a child right now. Even when he escaped, the mark would be forever on him and could never be taken away. Steve might settle to be a changeling, but he wouldn’t want the fate to happen to others.

And the mother, who had her son stolen away to the unknown realm, who had to suffer and grieve and fear for her child’s fate. Her well deserved joy to meet her son again was only crushed by the stark reality that the one returning to her wasn’t her child, but a twisted and fake copy made by the faeries to cover their trail. When she rightly recognized the fact, no one believed her and placed the blame on her, sending her to a mental ward, which Steve recall from the horrifying stories of his times that it wasn’t a place for a person to be.

When he returned to the Mansion, not forgetting to greet Jarvis politely, his heart was filled with anger, frustration and fear. Now that the law and order couldn’t serve its justice, he had to think of a mission plan to remedy the problem.

There were only these words in his mind.

<em>I need to help them.</em>

When he saw Tony and met his question, the words couldn’t help but spill out of him.  


* * *

  
After hearing Steve’s day, Tony quickly tried to think of solution. The sense of guilt on Steve didn’t befit him.

Tony comforted Steve, “I’ll ask my lawyer to look into it and represent the mother. We’ll help her. Then we’ll try to get the boy back, just as what we’ve planned”

“Thanks, Tony. I’m going to...”

Tony could guess the remaining words. Growing up in thirties, Steve must have heard a lot of frightening aspects about the mental ward. Being Steve, he wouldn’t want to leave a helpless person in its crutch and probably wanted to break into the ward, at the price of his career. But things needn’t to be done this way.

Tony quick-dialled Pepper to take care of the matter, and was relieved that Pepper didn’t ask much questions, although she must be curious about Tony’s request. Then he sat Steve down, and promised Steve, “Trust me. I’ll do my best.”

The lawyer did her job well, worthy of the hourly price she was paid and got the woman out. Well placed legal threats and possible public stunt did wonder to the hospital staff. Tony asked Steve to stay away because he wanted to protect his career; Tony himself too because he didn’t want his surname to complicated the matter.

After the matter was settled, Steve was more visibly relieved. Then they tried to figure the next steps to do once they got the woman out of the ward.

Steve must have been a good soldier back in the Wars, because although Steve looked tensed, he still set out their plan calmly and cautiously. The lawyer would ensure that Mrs Teng’s right was protected, while Steve and Tony needed to return to the Hedge to try to find more leads about the boy. “There ‘s a rumour that a market existed there, selling everything you can think of and what you can’t. We can find the lead there and then equipped ourselves to proceed,” Steve said.

Tony was surprised that Steve knew about it, but then Steve wasn’t one to let tactical information slip by. He must have gathered it from others’ casual talk. Tony nodded, seeming calm and actually his hand started to sweat, both because of fear and excitement. It ‘d be the first time he returned to the Hedge. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

Steve also insisted on finding Carol and Wanda to be back up. Tony agreed after hesitation. He’d rather not,  but it was foolish to venture without other people at their back. They contacted Carol and Wanda, who’d agreed that they’d come to help. But before that, they had to fuel their mana to prepare for any use of magic. Tony knew that grief kind of worked for him, but what about Steve? Tony looked at Steve and decided. “We’ll go to the nearest hospital. You’ll go to the paternity ward, while I go to the emergency room.”

“Why?”

“Because hope is more suitable for you.”

They went to a hospital and split. Tony stayed at a corner of the emergency room, to absorb the feeling of pain, sorrow, and he wasn't surprised to find that guilt was more right for him. He took a bit of the guilt from a mother who thought she hadn’t taken care of her child well, nipped a bit of sorrow from the parents who needed to send their child in again and again, and got a bit of worry from the woman biting her lips, waiting for the unpredictable news that could decide her life.

They were a weird match, Tony thought. For Steve whose world was left in the past, he looked forward to hope as his driving force. For Tony who strove to be advance of his time, the emotion of looking backward drove his magic. There was a joke in it, but he couldn’t think of the right one for now.

Steve returned and Tony could feel the power in Steve. They then went to the meeting place where Carol and Wanda were waiting for them. Carol was holding a bag. So was Wanda.

“I hope you both’re really ready for it,” Wanda said.

“We’re,” Steve said, and Tony agreed.

“Then let’s go,” Carol said.

The Hedge was everything as horrifying as what they’d remembered, no, more.  The different tints of green that were formed by the trees with branches dry enough to break open, vines that spiralled on the trees like snakes, and the brushes that seemed to hide the evil were still a horrible sight. But more importantly, sharp thorns were everywhere, which ability to tear open one’s body and soul was very clear in Tony’s memory. He could see from Carol and Wanda’s faces that they remembered too. It requires great balance to not walk right into the thorns.

Wanda deliberately cut her hand with a thorn, and immediately the darkness seemed to lift a bit, showing the paths more clearly. Tony knew that Wanda must have summoned a contract. It ‘d be very useful if Tony returned here again. He noted it down as something worth investigation.

Then a tree attacked.

Its branches pounced on them, trying to grab them, and the tree’s attack was fast and consistent. Soon they left several long wounds on them. Carol took out an oil can from her bag and poured oil on the tree, then threw a lighted match to it. A fire started but it was more smoke than flame. Then Carol raised her hand and fire ejected from her hand, burning the tree. Even then it took quite a long time to defeat the tree.

Their journey continued. The hostile trees were less of their concern when they met other dangerous monsters in the hedge. They encountered a group of giants with long claws and sharp teeth, and Tony’s heart skipped a beat when a giant managed to get a hand on Steve. Luckily, Steve summoned his contract with stone in time, using his enhanced strength  to shrug the giant off. Tony used his fight training and  contracts to locate their weak point and hit them. Fire emitted from Carol’s hands to burn the giants while Wanda summoned darkness to bound their action. Finally they drove the giant off.

When they walked by a swamp, they were ambushed by a swarm of  fireflies. They might be small, but they were bloodthirsty and magical. And they were really fast. Tony developed a healthy hatred of insects after encountering them.

They finally went to a wider path that they could hear sounds befitting a busy market. There were sounds of balance tipping, people shouting their items and busy sounds of trade transaction. However, then they heard sounds of hooves stepping on the ground and weird laughing.

“It was the sound of a faerie hunt approaching. We’d better left,” Wanda said. Steve hesitated but Carol said, “We still have chance later. Now we can’t deal with a team of faeries.”

“All right” Steve said. They then had to fight back the monsters to return to the same portal.

Tony was frustrated that they were so close to the their destination only to be stopped by the Hunt, but he decided to put it away as he gathered knowledge along the journey.  


* * *

  
Steve and Tony returned from the hedge, battered, but there was a new hope in Steve’s mind. They had ventured into the Hedge and survived the experience. It meant that they were a step closer to rescue abducted changelings on faeries’ ground. Tony walked straight toward the direction of  his workshop, probably to study what he got on his way, but Steve put a hand on him and applied bandages on his wounds. Later Steve needed to wash the clothes by himself. He didn’t want to make Jarvis worry.

The next day Steve woke up early as usual despite the previous adventure. He cleaned up, put on his uniform and went to work.

When he returned to the station, the atmosphere was tense and Carter advised, “You’d better avoid Detective Debbagh. She ‘s in a bad mood.”

“Why?”

“Mrs. Teng, as you remember, goes public with things and Detective Debbagh’s under a lot of pressure from the above.”

Steve felt sympathetic about Detective Debbagh. In a lot of ways, she was just doing her job. A Faerie abduction wasn’t exactly listed in your training. However, Mrs Teng had the right to receive a fair treatment.

In the station, Detective Debbagh passed by them and threw a glance so cold that Steve felt he would be frozen if a look could kill. But he didn’t say anything about that.

Then Steve and Carter went out on patrol. It was an extremely busy day. There were several reports about cats being stolen, and the tearful owners begged Steve and Carter that their darlings be brought back. A teenage boy pushed another from the roof of his school. When he was asked why, he only stuttered that the other boy kept teasing him. There were the usual cases of burglars and thieves, who used all kinds of tricks to rid people of their belongings. There was the Pregnant Alice, who was so skillful in packing stolen goods under her shirt that she seemed to suddenly grow a nine-month old baby in an hour. Gentleman Josh, who always wore a suit and his usual trick was bring an empty shopping bag and exchanged it with people’s bags when they didn’t pay attention. Steve didn’t know whether to praise their trickery or to be sad that they wasted their smart on such things. They stopped a drunk driver and took him back to the station, and arrested a drug dealer peddling the drug to several teenagers. Steve was extra glad in arresting him. Selling drugs was bad enough, not to mention selling to teenagers.

After the shift, Steve went to Carol and Wanda’s shelter for changeling to visit them because he worried about their injuries. Besides, It’d been a period of time for him to see Luke and other friends. Steve felt refreshed in their company as he could be more open about his changeling nature than with his mortal friends. Wanda was here, and she thanked him for his concern. They talked about last night’s experience and Steve asked her more about the market. Wanda said, “It’s called Goblins Market, and you can buy anything: memory, power, magical tokens, at a huge price. It may be that you paid the goblins with things such as your memory of the rose scent, your eye colour and even your soul. The goblins’re unpredictable and dangerous.”

When they were talking, the doorbell rang and Steve opened the door. Steve paused when he saw the visitor.  It was a changeling Steve had never seen before. She reminded him of a kaleidoscope with mirror skin, and her eyes changed colours rapidly.

“Greeting, Officer Rogers. I’m Mystique,” the changeling said. She was with a changeling boy that Steve recognized as Mrs Teng’s son. He clung to Mystique tightly.

“How can I help you?” Steve asked.

“I would like to have a talk with you. Care for a walk?”

Steve considered for awhile and said, “Better bring the boy back to his mum first.”

“I know you’ll say that,” Mystique smiled.

They returned the boy to his mother and Steve was nearly overwhelmed by the joy and relief from Mrs Teng. Then Mystique said to Steve outside the building, “I’m here to recruit you to our side.”

“What side?”

“The Brotherhood of changelings.”

Steve recalled that there were vague talk about this from hearsay, but he didn’t exactly know what this organization was about, so he asked, “Why do I have to join yours?”

Mystique said, “You see the mother and the child. You see how much pain the faeries bring to people. You see how the mortals aren’t up to deal with it. Other changelings may settle with the current situation, but we’re not. We want to change for the better. We want to stop the faerie one and for all, and I think you ‘ll want to join us for the change.”

“What exactly do you do?”

“We fight faeries. It’s dangerous and we’re prepared to sacrifice any time, but it’s for a meaningful cause,” Mystique said. “We observed you. I think you are a brave person and you just need a chance to serve the better cause. We can help by providing our experience, our knowledge and weapons.”

“What will you require of me?”

“We demand a full-time commitment because the faerie can strike any time,  so you probably need to leave the force, I’m afraid. You’ll need to sign a high level pledge with us because we do demand the best from our people.”

Steve hesitated. He ‘d experienced the torture himself, and he encountered  enough incidents to know that the current system had limitation. But is it enough for him to throw away the chance to do thing from within and to join a mysterious militant group just based on Mystique’s words?

“Give me time to consider,” Steve said.

“I’ll wait for your response. Here’s my number.” Mytique said, handing him a piece of paper.

“By the way, what happened to the fetch?” Steve asked

“He’d returned to where he should have been.” The was a cold glint in Mystique’s eyes

Steve shivered. The fetch was innocent in a way. He wished there was a more peaceful way to handle the fetch.

Steve returned to the shelter and Wanda asked, “What did Mystique ask of you?”

Seeing no reasons to lie, Steve said, “She asked me to join the Brotherhood of Changeling.”

Wanda frowned. “It’s a mysterious organization and we don’t know much about it. I’m surprised she just went straight here to recruit you.”

Luke came to them and asked, “What’s happened?”

Steve told him about it.

“Well, killing faerie ‘s great, but I don’t know much about these people. You should consider it carefully. It can be a chance. It can also be a trap,” Luke said.

Wanda said, “Luke’s right. Don’t make a hasty decision.”

“I will,” Steve promised to both of them.

After playing pool with Luke and generally chatting with Carol and others, Steve said goodbye and returned home. On his way he kept thinking about Mystique’s invitation. Should he join the Brotherhood? Steve admitted that he was moved by her words, but it was a huge life change that required serious consideration. That was why when he returned to the Mansion, he didn’t notice that Tony seemed to be occupied with something.  


* * *

  
Tony returned to his company office. He was surprised to see a changeling in it. She was stunning, her hair flowing like a wave despite no wind, and she wasn’t conventionally beautiful: her nose too big for that, but combined Tony would have a hard time to tear his eyes off her if not for his meeting several Fairest the changelings abducted for their beauty and kept as the faeries’s statues, lovers, and in the worst case, the faeries’ playmate.

“Mr, Stark. I’m Valdemar Tykkio and I’m here for business,” the changeling said.

“I don’t think we have an appointment, Ms. Tykkio” Tony said.

“Believe me. You’ll be interested,” Valdemar Tykkio said, “I know you’ve been to the Hedge.”

“So?”

“You have been to the Hedge. You’ve glimpsed just a bit of the mystery. We can lead you to much more than you imagine.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“Watch,”

Valdemar Tykkio waved her hand. Immediately she turned to an ice statue with flowers petals scattered inside her. Then she turned back, and a glass sword with grapes vines tangling around it appeared in her hand. Tony was thinking about the impracticality of the material when she cut the desk, the glass sword broke and reformed again.

“It’s impressive, but so?,” Tony didn’t want to show his surprise. It was bad for negotiation.

“It’s not a magic you could acquire normally. And if you want to know more, you ‘ll find that working with us is more beneficial.”

Tony was silent. It seemed a lucrative offer, but what was the price?

“Why do you think I can’t get it on my own?”

“Think of the knowledge at hand and the benefit you can do for both changelings and humanity. I bring a gift to you. You can think of what I said meanwhile.”

“And?”

“I’ll come again when you’re ready.” After saying that, she left the office, not before leaving an object on his desk. It looked like an ordinary stone, but when looked closer it radiated greenish blue light.

Tony looked at the object she left on his desk. He‘d spend this night researching it; he was certain about that.

After she had left, Happy went to his office to receive him.  From the way he looked at Pepper, Tony could see infatuation in Happy’s eyes. Pepper didn’t seem to reject it neither. Tony wasn’t surprised. If he had met Pepper first, maybe he would do it too. And Hay seemed like a decent person with his further background check.  He settled on watching what’d  develop out of it. It’s safer when the love stayed within the inner circle.

Outside the building when Tony wasn’t noticing, Valdemar Tykkio made a call and said, “Yes. He was about to eat the bait. All right. We’ll be in contact.” She smiled with confidence.

* * *

  
Steve returned home and wasn’t surprised that Tony locked himself in the workshop again. He didn’t expect that Tony would lead a so called healthy or even normal lifestyle, but Tony sometimes forgot that even as a changeling he needed to eat and sleep for his survival. Sometimes Steve worried that it was an old habit brought from the faerie realm, where you would always be sewn up to prepare for the next day’s work no matter what’d happen to him during the day. He just went straight to his bedroom after setting with everything and slept. He thought Tony joined him at deep night, but he wasn’t sure, as when he woke up Tony was nowhere in sight, probably foregoing a night of sleep.

Carter and him responded to an urgent call and walked into a building. When they knocked the door, the door next to this apartment was opened abruptly and a group of AIM agents rushed out into the corridor. It was obviously a trap.

“Cease,” Carter shouted, but the agents marched on anyway and pounced on Steve and Carter. They asked for reinforcement through the mike. Then Carter wrestled with the agent which pounced on and tried to disarm her, knocking her elbow to the side of the agent’s body and punched the agent’s nose. Then she started moving on to another. Steve wasn’t idle either. He grabbed an agent’s hand, catching the agent to movie in a circle and threw the agent down.  Then when the agent tried to stand up again, Steve kicked the agent heavily. The other agents seemed to notice that they were at disadvantage and escape into the stairs. Steve would follow, but he needed to deal with the captured AIM agents first. Then reinforcement came and the other cops dealt with the escaped agents. He and Carter pronounced the agents’ rights, put the handcuffs on them and took them back to the station. 

Later Steve heard that there was a dispute about justification between  NYPD, FBI and SHIELD. But Carter and him were taken to the Prescient to give testimony about the event. It was long and tedious and Steve called Jarvis to not wait for him. 

Steve found the interview a bit meaningless and told Carter, and she agreed, but adding that, “There ‘re so much police brutality case in the media. I think the top brass ‘re a bit over-sensitized.”

After the interview, Steve and Carter were released and they went to an eatery for a long delayed dinner. Carter started to speculate on the reason for the AIM agents attack and launched into several conspiracy theories. Then she shrugged, concluded that there was really no rationale to terrorist organizations. “I’m surprised  they’re aiming for the small fish like us this time. It must be that they’re getting a tight budget, like us.”

Steve listened to Carter and tried to reason out this attack. Was it a retaliation of the last time  they encountered the AIM agents? If so, he had to contact Carol and the others for any possible further attack. SHIELD and Tony covered their trace well, but you could never be sure. Was it like Carter said, a random attack? If so, it meant that the mortal world was in danger and needed protection. He would be dismissing his responsibility to leave the force. He dwelt on  these questions and decided to made a detour to the shelter run by Carol and Wanda, the Nest to warn them and have a clean up, lest Tony noticed and worried too much.

He didn’t expect to go to the Nest and found that the atmosphere was so tense that you could cut a slice from it. He could feel anger radiated from Carol and Wanda didn’t smile either.  He asked, “What’d happen?”

“There was a notable increase in children abduction cases. Several changelings were missing. We’re looking into the matter.”

“How can I help?”

“Keep a keen eye for now. We know you’re busy. “

Returning home, Steve kept thinking of the question: changelings or mortals: which side needed him more? What should he do to uphold his oath: to protect and serve?  


* * *

  
Tony spent a lot of time studying the gift. It was, as he admitted, fascinating. He put it through his laboratory equipments and wasn’t surprised they failed to find out its properties. If the woman spoke even half the truth, joining the organization  would be beneficial as it sounded like a rich repository of knowledge and magic that could be harnessed for good purpose. Even when she was lying, getting inside the organization to investigate was easier than speculation from the outside.

Tony made a decision, put the gift back, left the workshop and got ready to sleep on his big comfortable bed.  He didn’t notice the unusual glint of colour change of the gift when he left.  


* * *

  
It was another day Steve and Carter went on patrol. When Steve was about to step into the patrol car, he paused when he heard a ticking sound that was never here before. He shouted at Carter, “Get away from the car!” and grab her hand to run. The car exploded behind them and burst into flame and smoke. The fragments of the car brushed by them and they coughed in the smoke.

Carter sighed, “At least the top brass won’t tell us to pay for it. It’s a small relief”

Steve admired her calmness. “Better report to the station first,” he said, and contacted the station sergeant, who told them to stay there to preserve the crime scene.

The detective who arrived was Debbagh, who looked at Steve coldly and said, “You two again. First ambush, and now bombing?”

Carter said, “Things happened.”

Crime scene people arrived at the crime scene and started to collect evidences. A crowd of spectators started to gather. The reporters came too, flashing their cameras at them and tried to ask them questions.

Debbagh then said, “Go to the hospital first. You’re both bleeding. I’ll question you there. They entered an ambulance and then went to the nearby hospital to receive treatment. Then the questioning began. It was very extensive. Detective Debbagh was especially interested in why Steve knew about the bomb, and Steve just said it was an intuition --- he wasn’t sure the truth ‘s within the human acceptable range. Only he heard the sound, and he wasn’t sure whether it was because of his super sense as a changeling. After then he looked at his phone and saw that he had a dozen missed call from Tony. He must have seen the news and worried about Steve. After the questioning, he excused himself,  went out of the hospital to reply to Tony’s call, only to be bombarded by a lot of questions. Despite Steve’s protest, Tony said, “Where’re you? I’m sending Happy to get you home.”

Steve knew that there was no stopping Tony so he said, “Not the flashy cars.”

“All right.”

Then when Happy arrived, Steve found that he had a different concept of not flashy car from Tony’s. Under the others’ scrutiny, Steve stepped into the car embarrassingly and was sent back home. He found Tony waiting there, and asked, “Are you all right skipping your job? What’ll Pepper say?”

“I happen to think that my injured lover’s more important than the paperwork,” Tony said, and he already leaned over to check on Steve’s injury.

“You’re attacked. Twice in such a short period. Have you really considered the fact that it may be relevant to your job?”

Steve wanted to say that it could happen to anyone, but even he had to agree that it was quite abnormal and someone wanted Carter and him die. But why? He was just a beat cop.  A changeling beat cop, perhaps, but he didn’t remember doing anything on the job to induce such kind of attack. Except...

“It might be the AIM again,” Steve said.

“They just don’t let go of us,” Tony said. “They need to be stopped.”

“If it’s AIM, It’s a continuous threat. You have to be careful. They may target you next.”

“Don’t worry about me too much. The company has the top security team,” Tony said.

After such excitement, they decided to stay home and surfed the TV channel. They started on a film with a girl who went into a mystical realm, and the antagonist reminded him too much of his keeper. He pressed the button on the remotes and it switched to the news, where the explosion was covered. This time it was Tony who changed the channel. Finally they settled on the cartoon channel and ate popcorn. Watching the super girl saving day, Steve wishes that the real life could be as simple as that.

When the night ended, Steve found that he forgot to mention to Tony about Mystique’s offer. He decided to tell him the next day.  


* * *

  
Tony conducted a background search on Valdemar Tykkio. She was said to be a scientist and published several papers. Then she suddenly disappeared off the ground and nothing was heard again. Tony wondered when Valdemar Tykkio returned to the mortal realm and what happened to the fetch. Knowledge could be a lever.

Then Tony threw himself into work. Tony was busy. There was suddenly a lot of contracts to sign, meetings to go to, research projects to approve. Then when Pepper told him that he had a new appointment, he didn’t sound happy, “Who’s it?” He asked.

“A certain Steve Rogers.”

This caught Tony’s attention. “Pepper, when’s the appointment?”

“You want to know it now? It’s 7:00pm at Forlini's Restaurant.”

“I can’t finish all the work at 7.”

“Go out and have some fresh air. The work’ll wait for you,” Pepper then asked, “By the way, is he your new conquest in your little black book?”

“It’s more serious than that.”

“He seems a nice person. Just be careful and try not to appear on tabloids headlines.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, this contract...”

At 7pm Tony arrived at the restaurant. Steve was already there, in casual clothes. He looked smart in it and Tony leered at the way the clothes accentuates Steve’s body and smiled when Steve blushed slightly. . He sat down and they started to order food. Steve order fettuccine alfredo, and when Tony forked some of it, he found it tasted good. Tony’s chicken parmigiana was delicious either.

They casually chatted about food and current topics.  Tony enjoy this night alone with good food a lot and readily agreed to a visit to the Metro Museum in exchange for Steve attending an auto show with him. Their night was interrupted when a good looking blonde woman came to them. “Hi, Steve.”

“Hi, Carter.”

“You can call me Sharon when we’re off duty,” Then Carter turned to Tony and raised an eyebrow. “Your lucky person, Steve?”

Tony stood up and shook Carer’s hand. He wanted to show his better side to Steve’s job partner. He’d never seen her before, but from Steve’s description he knew that Carter was one of Steve’s friends. “Hi, I’m Tony. Steve often talked about you.”

“He’d better hope he spoke good things about me.” Carer smiled.

“What bring you here?” Steve asked.

“Same reason as you. Let me introduce my girl to you.” Sharon said. She left and brought a dark-haired woman to them. Steve and Tony looked at each other. Tony was a bit surprised because Sharon’s girlfriend was the SHIELD agent they’d met before. The world was small. The agent smiled at them.   “Natasha, these’re Steve and Tony. Steve and Tony, this’s Natasha,” Sharon said. Then she noticed their expression and said, “I guess you’d met Natasha before?”

Steve said, “Just once.”

Sharon said, “You have to tell me your story later. I’m going to my table now. See you later.” She then left with Natasha.

Tony and Steve then continued their dinner, but Tony’s mind was turning. Tony didn’t believe in coincidence, especially coming to matters involving SHIELD. Was it likely that Natasha used Sharon to spy on them? But then the going open part makes it less likely. However, what if...

Tony’s distracted enough not to catch Steve’s last sentence. Then Steve repeated again, “Would you come with me to a gallery exhibition next week?”

“I’ll have to check my schedule, but I’ll try my best to go.”

“That’s great, Tony,” Steve smiled brightly.

At the end of the night, they returned together. Tony was glad that Steve felt free to introduce him to his friends - he knew that Steve was a loyal person, but an open gesture was always nice. On the other hand, Tony felt hat he needed to handle the exposure of his relationship with Steve carefully. Tony was always under the limelight. He’d rather not pull Steve into it and let him realize the burden of being in a romantic relationship with Tony Stark.

Besides, in some way Steve was like Tony’s best kept secret. He didn’t want to share Steve with too many people. Steve was so... precious to him. Better not let Steve knew what other sides of Tony was like as Steve seemed to have an illusion that Tony was a very good person. It felt nice, and he didn’t want to break it.

After they returned, Tony noticed that a letter was struck on the metal fence of the Mansion. He was about to take it away when Steve stopped him. “What if it contains anthrax powders?”

“What’s your suggestion?”

“Let me send it to the police lab for analysis. But the techs’ll be off duty now. For now we’ll leave it here and tell Jarvis not to touch it.”

Tony took out his mobile phone to use the light to see better. Under the light Tony could see that it was a light pink envelope, and he could smell that it was splashed with perfume. He wondered who sent it and why the letter was sent to them.

It became a disturbing end note to the otherwise pleasant night.

The next day Steve sent the letter for analysis and found that there was nothing but a risque note inside. The lab techs had a quite good laugh about it, and told him not to waste their time like that. He told it to Tony in a sad voice in a phone call, and Tony comforted him. But this was in his mind. What was the motive behind such a seemingly meaningless move?

When Valdemar Tykkio called him again, Tony said that he agreed to her condition. Now it was his turn to see what steps she would take.  


* * *

  
Steve was glad that Tony could join him to the gallery exhibition. He knew Tony was busy, but he heard the artist was really good.

When they went to the gallery, there were already people. People in suits, people in loud and colourful ethnic clothes with tint of paint on their hair, people in black gothic dresses. Steve found that there were several changelings he didn’t know here. They nodded at each other but didn’t seem inclined to introduce themselves to Steve. Steve didn’t mind. They came probably for the art, not social interaction.

Steve focused on the paintings instead. The subject matters were serious: war, death and other dark topics. What were painted on the canvas seemed innocent enough: children playing on a field, soldiers returning to his family, but when you looked closer you could see unsettling hints on the pictures and be surrounded by their macabre atmosphere. Steve appreciated the perfect mastery of the artist’s technique and the way she captured the darkness in life.

Then Tony patted his shoulder. Steve turned and saw the artist Paxton. He saw her picture on paper, with a cobalt tine hair and paint on it. However, he noticed that she was a changeling too. She seemed wasted  and ill.  Her  eyes  were  a  flat  slate-gray  without  iris  or  pupil .  Her frame was anorexic, barely five foot in her stocking feet.  But she moved with the vigour and energy of a teenager, defying her image.

Steve went to the artist  and introduced himself. The artist blinked when she heard that he was a cop, but their shared interest in art made this a friendly conversation. She even invited him for further meeting later. He felt surprised and glad, and told this to Tony.

Tony smiled. “Bring on the charm, old boy? With this rate I’ll get jealous.”

Steve playfully patted his shoulder because he could see from  Tony’s eyes that he was just joking. Even so he replied, “You needn’t. There’s no one like you.”

They left, had a nice meal and a generally good day. Steve hoped that they could have more time for outings like that.

That night Steve had a dream. It started friendly enough, with him walking along the New York street, sensing the city’s vibrancy under the bright sun. He could feel the positive energy emitted from the people and felt his mood lightened.  But then he felt a strong impulse to find something so he went into a blue building. When he entered it, the building distorted, became a big mouth and swallowed him. He tried to escape by punching open a hole, but he failed and could only wait for his certain death.

When he woke up, he found himself covered with a layer of sweat and he could see the bite mark on his arm. He wondered what his dream meant. He decided to keep quiet about this because he didn’t want to worry Tony.

* * *

Steve met Paxton at an appointed place. It was a cafe with dark walls and a lot of black-and-white photoes. Steve guessed she liked the cafe’s decoration, but he found that the coffee was good. When Paxon arrived, she ordered dark coffee and gulped it, reminding him of Tony.

They started to talk about art. Paxon loved Jason Pollack,, and said that she appreciated the vibrant energy and the casualness implied in the pictures. Steve preferred art more accessible to the public and told her so. Paxon smiled, “Many modern art critics wouldn’t agree with you.”

Steve insisted, “True art should convey meaning and be accessible to the public. Failing that, it should be at least visually pleasing.”

“You’re talking about the golden rules of art, right? I myself think that art should shock and induce people to think, and I think Jason did it.”

They had a friendly debate about Jason Pollack, popular art and other matters.  The artist had a dour outlook, but surprisingly friendly. Steve remembered that she was rumoured to be cold and distant, but maybe she was just shy.

During the meal Paxon  mentioned that she always went into the hedge for inspiration. “I love to take long journey. You never know what you’d find and see elsewhere. Staying in a city makes me feel suffocated.”

“It’s hard to imagine for me,” Steve admitted. New York was big enough for him.

“Well, New York’s great, but I’ll get to New Orleans soon. Through the hedge, of course.”

“What?”

“The hedge could be used as a short cut between two changeling community freehold. It’s dangerous, but fast, and suits my purpose. I just can’t stand being trapped in the subways or a plane.”

Steve was surprised when he heard that the hedge could act as a (dangerous) shortcut. He noted this down as it might have further use.

Steve remembered that Paxon was a Darkling, which was trapped in small and dark place to do her keeper’s work during the period in faerie realm. He could understand the feeling of claustrophobia. Even now he’d prefer to keep doors half open. .

Paxon also talked about her art. She said that her inspiration came from the darkness and absurdity of life. That how she could disguise and contrasted them with beauty and supposed innocence. “Innocence was overrated. Children were just naive and not cherubs. Latching to child dream’s creepy.” Steve understood her art more. Paxon also invited Steve to discuss his art, and seemed interested.

Then Paxon said, “Have you heard of the coming Winter Court and Spring Court alliance? Everyone ‘s surprised by that. They ‘re always in a state of cold war and peace seemed unlikely between them.”

“What are they?”

“Haven’t you heard about this? Oh I see, you’re a courtless.”

“What does it mean?”

“Courts are the predominant social structures of our society. They represent our political allegiances and their philosophy toward life as a changeling. Each Court also grants affinity with two contract lists, both the Fleeting and Eternal lists for the appropriate season.  
A courtless ‘ll have thing simpler, but a  lack of a support network larger than one’s friends can prove difficult. Basically, it’s a mix of supportive group and political parties that signed pledges with the seasons to protect their members from the faeries.”

“Pledges?”

“You don’t even sign a pledge with your friends and your freehold?” There was a strange glint in her eyes. She explained, “Pledges are agreements which are infused with mana and supernaturally enforced by the rules of Faerie. We as changelings can use it as well, and they’re the backbone of our society because through pledges you swear your loyalty and trust. Though some malicious changelings can trick you into them.”

Steve wasn’t sure why Paxon had a bitter smile. He guessed that it was because she had some unpleasant experience with pledges.

Paxon then told him that she was leaving tomorrow, but she promised she would keep him in touch

Steve returned home and on his way thought about the matter of pledges. Did Tony know it? If so, why didn’t Tony mention the intention of signing a pledge with him? Did it mean that Tony was insecure about their relationship? He decided to ask Tony when he saw him.

When he saw Tony home, he asked, “Do you know about pledges?”

“Yes. I’m researching them.”

“You haven’t mentioned it to me, and I’d like to know why.”

“I want the best thing for you. A simple pledge between friends is not enough for our relationship, and I’m formulating the best.”

“I don’t know you’re a romantic,” Steve said. He could see from Tony’s face that he was serious. A sense of warmth spread into his heart.

“Don’t spread it to the public.”

“Next time, be more open to me?”

“I will,” Tony promised. Steve smiled, because he knew Tony was always serious with his promise.  


* * *

  
Steve and Paxon kept each other in contact with email and phone call. He was delighted to hear that she had a successful exhibition in New Orleans and told her so while she encouraged him to have a gallery exhibit himself. “I saw your paintings. They’re good. Why not find an agent for them?”

“It’s impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible. Let me put you in touch with the people I know.”

Somehow Steve agreed to holding an exhibit at a small gallery. Then he focused on making better paintings  and made the best use of his spare time. Arranging an exhibit while doing his full time job was difficult, but he managed. He always brought a sketchbook with him to capture the best, the hopeful and the dark part of New York, because when there was shadow, there was light. He didn’t expect a large audience as he heard that realistic paintings were old-fashioned. So imagine his surprise when quite a lot of people said they enjoyed his art. Some of his paintings were even sold off. When a young couple bought one of his paintings and praised him for his work, he felt proud, glad and grateful to Paxon. It was his dream to exhibit his art and she helped it to come true. He was forming an email in his mind to say his thank to her.

Tony was of course here too, and Steve had forbidden him to buy his pictures. Tony winked and said, “I won’t. I ‘d keep your more interesting pictures though.”

Steve felt his face warm. He‘d drawn a lot of nudes and some naked pictures featuring Tony, despite his initial reluctance. Of course they’d be for their private eyes only. Steve wouldn’t want to expose Tony this way, and he‘d rather keep their relationship out of the public, thanked. Romantic relationship should be a thing between the couple, with news shared to the trusted life circle, not a thing exposed to the public scrutiny like a dead insect stapled to the cutting board. His friends knew about it and accepted them. It was enough to him.

Sometimes Steve wondered what his mother would think about Tony if she was still alive. He was exactly the opposite of what a mother of his time would want for his son: male, seductive, obsessive with his work, but he also had a big heart, intelligent and was strong enough to carve a place for himself despite the difficulties. His mother would like Tony, maybe not at first, but she would. Steve was sure of that.

* * *

  
Tony could feel Steve’s joy about the exhibit and while he was grateful to Paxon, he was a bit jealous that she thought up the idea. But it was good that Steve met a fellow changeling artist and shared their idea about art. Tony as an engineer could get perspective and even colour theory, but he could never really get the truth of art. It was a piece of Steve inaccessible to him and he had to learn to be content with it, just as he accepted that Steve might never completely get his obsession to technology. He hadn’t asked Steve to show him to Paxon though. He wouldn’t want to intrude on their friendship and according to his experience, people’d act very differently to the Stark name and he’d rather avoid it. If the truth lied more in the fact that he wasn’t sure whether he ‘d be welcome in this, so be it. Tony had no obligation to be honest to himself.  


* * *

  
When Paxon invited Steve to a cafe in the suburbs, he gladly came because he missed talking with her about art a lot. He arrived at the cafe and saw Paxon was already there. He greeted her and sat down, and saw that Paxon already ordered a cup of coffee for each. He thanked her and they started talking about Paxon’s trip and Steve’s art exhibit. Paxon talked about the ruins and the towns she saw in the hedge and Steve listened to her, interested. He never thought of the hedge as an habitable place. It showed that what little he knew of the place.

“Your coffee was getting cold,” Paxon said. Steve sipped from it and continued talking. There was a weird taste in the coffee but he shrugged it off. It was probably some kind of fancy coffee bean. He found that he was getting slower to respond to Paxon, he was stuttering, and his body felt heavier. Then he felt increasingly sleepy, his eyelids drooping and his last memory was Paxon’s determined face.

When he woke up again, he found that he couldn’t move because he was tied up and his hands handcuffed to his back to a tree. He wasn’t sure where he was, but one thing he was sure. He was drugged because his head felt light. When his eyes got used to the light, he could see that he was in some forest. It was possible he was moved outside the city. While he didn’t want to believe it, Paxon was probably involved because he saw her clearly conscious and free, rearing for something.

“Why do you do that?” Steve asked. He felt shocked. He thought they were friends.

 Paxon  didn’t reply for a long period of time, then she said,  “My faerie keeper forces me. My freedom in this realm came at a price. The Keeper forced me to sign a pledge to hand over people to her as her wards. At first she was satisfied with human babies. But now that she was getting more greedy. She wants changelings, and she doesn’t accept no as an answer.”

“So you’re the one behind the changelings missing?” Steve asked. He felt angry and sad at the betrayal. He didn’t want to think like that, but obviously all the friendly behaviours were just a ploy to get him into a trap, to subject changelings to a fate worse than death. 

“Well, I can hardly resist a faerie keeper, anyway. I only choose those clearly beyond help. It’d be a merciful act to send them back, rather than letting them roam the world. I’m doing good here.”

Steve was shocked to hear her justifying herself so easily. Didn’t she feel shame? Then he thought about the other captured changelings. Did they still have hope, or were they already sent back? “What do you do to the changelings you captured?”

“My Keeper took them to her realm. It’s vile, but...”

Steve could feel a sense of guilt in her voice. It made him feel more comfortable that Paxon had a human side after all, Still, he couldn’t help but said, “And you just do it, at the price of others..”

“You don’t understand. I’ll break the pledge with my keeper if I don’t do it. I’ll do anything to prevent being back in my keeper’s hand.”

Steve could understand the fear. But there were surely ways to deal with the threat from her keeper other than that. He couldn’t help but asked, “Have you tried to ask for help?”

“Are you kidding? I’ll be forsaken by my friends and the changeling society. I couldn’t bear the price.””

“So you’d rather doom people in place of you. Tell me. Why do you choose me?”

“You haven’t signed any pledge with anyone. It’ll be easier to make you disappear. Less people’ll be hurt.”

Steve was hurt. “I thought we were friends.”

“I’m sorry, but I need to think of myself first. No one else ’ll do it for me. Everyone’s for themselves”

Meanwhile, Steve tried to free himself. The handcuffs seemed to be police issue and couldn’t be open using the trick he knew. Then he tried again by summoning his contract with stone to increase his strength, but it didn’t work. He had neglected to fill his mana and a cop didn’t always go to the right place to harvest joy. He felt angry and frightened. But he still didn’t give up. He tried to persuade Paxon, “You’ll regret it. You can keep kidnapping changelings and hope for the best. But what if one day the Keeper gets so greedy that you can’t satisfy her any more? What if you talk to other people? Maybe we can...”

For a moment Paxon seemed to hesitate. Then she shrugged. “Stop talking. I’ve decided, “ Paxon said. She was holding a knife dazzling with spark. Steve knew it was because it’s infused with magic. He tried his last desperate attempt to get free. No way he’d sat still to face his demise.

“To lessen your pain. I’ll summon the fleeting spring contract to make you less desire to escape,” Paxon said.

Could she do that? It was frighteningly likely with Steve’s admitted limited knowledge with these contracts. Steve bit his  lips and was determined to use all his will to act against Paxon’s power. He didn’t want to be brainwashed.

An arrow out of nowhere shot at Paxon. She would be hit if not for her seemingly telepathing herself out of her current position.

“Who?” she asked.

There were no answer, but more arrows poured at her like rain. When Steve looked closer, the arrows weren’t ordinary. They were gleaming with the colour of blood. Paxon telepathed away from the arrows and shouted, “Come out!”

Five people appeared from the shadow of the trees. Steve recognized one of them as Mystique, with her bow and arrow. She was accompanied by an impossibly tall giant, a girl holding a fire ball, and the others. The giant stomped the ground and blocked Paxon’s way. The girl threw fire ball at Paxon and Mystique continued shooting. Finally an arrow got Paxon and she fell. Then the giant came to Steve , untied him and broke his handcuff as it was a piece of paper. Steve rubbed hIs hand to facilitate the blood flow and he was about to thank them when Mystique said, “You need to go. This woman’s faerie keeper is coming.”

“What about you all?”

“Trying to fight the faerie, of course.”

Steve was about to argue with them, but the giant accompanying Mystique knocked him over and when he woke up again, he was lying outside the mansion and met Jarvis’s worried face. His head and neck hurt but he managed to smile and comfort him. Tony appeared, visibly worried and insisted on calling a doctor, ignoring Steve’s assurance.

This night Tony hovered at his bed. Admittedly Tony didn’t have the best bedside manner., because soon Tony was distracted by his laptop and started typing on it, but Steve found it sweet anyway. Finally Steve pulled Tony to the bed and they slept together. After this night’s adventure, Steve felt comforted just to hear Tony’s mechanical heartbeat.

The next day he looked at the news, but he didn’t find anything mentioning Paxon. Probably Mystique and her people took the body away and disposed it. Maybe it was for the best. He wanted to thank Mystique but when he tried to phone her, he was unable to reach her. He hoped they survived their fight with the faerie and decided that he’d express his gratitude the next time they saw each other. Mystique and her people were really brave and he regretted not being able to help them. He decided that he should work harder to harvest mana so things like that wouldn’t happen again.  


* * *

  
Steve called Carol and told her about the incident. Carol seemed surprised and explained that Paxon had a good standing in New York’s changeling communities. Despite her door outlook, she was well liked in Spring and Winter Court because of her art. “So you really can’t trust anyone.” She concluded bitterly. “Now all make sense now. The regular disappearance, the long trip to get inspiration, all a cover to sacrifice her own kind to the faeries.”

Steve thought of the pledges and asked Carol about them. Carol confirmed Paxon’s explanation. Steve then said, “You never ask us to pledge to the freehold.”

“You two haven’t been ready yet. When you are, I‘m always welcoming.”

“Thanks, Carol.”

“There’s no need to thank. Remember to visit us more.”

“I will. See you later.”

“Later.”

Steve only felt sad and betrayed at Paxon’s demise. She hurt so many fellow changelings, but she was a victim of the faerie too.

And this strengthened his dilemma of whether to join Mystique. She seemed to be doing an admirable job and saved his life. This was worth repaying. But did it mean that it was time for him to quit the force?

Then after receiving a lecture about police presence from the sergeant, when on patrol duty today Steve and Carter stopped a crime about to happen. When they continued to patrol, they heard a desperate call, “Help!”. Steve ran to where the voice came from and saw that a teenage girl was screaming. At her foot was a child who didn’t move. Steve immediately ran to the child and checked that she wasn’t breathing. Then Steve did CPR on her. At first there were no responses, then slowly the child began to breathe. “Thank you very much!” the teenage girl said.

At the end of the shift, when he asked Carter whether a cop like him was necessary for the city, Carter said, “Definitely. You aren’t going to quit and move to greener pasture now? NYPD is underpowered and I don’t want to lose a partner.”

“No, I just...”

“Listen. It may not be a fun job, and my words may sound dull, but the people here needs us. They’re ours, just like we’re their first line of defence. The sergeant did have a point in the usefulness of police presence. .Anyway don’t make a rush choice.”

Then Carter seemed to remember something and said, “Remember the mother and the girl Amy we helped?”

“They found a place now. The last time I called Amy’s mother and she said she was doing fine. The husband was put in the jail for other crimes, but he surely wouldn’t disturb his family for a long time. I’m not saying that we can do everything; sometimes we failed. But sometimes we do  make a difference.”

Steve nodded at Carer’s words. He was relieved to hear that Amy and her mother were doing fine. <em>Then what about my other people?</em> he thought

Finally he decided to discuss it with Tony before making the decision. After all it was a huge and life-altering choice, and Tony deserved to know.

He felt more relieved after that. <em>Tonight. Tonight I’ll talk with Tony. </em>  


* * *

  
After Tony had said he’d agreed to look further into the matter, Valdemar Tykkio arranged a meeting with him at the suburbs of New York. When he got into the car, he was blindfolded and could feel that the car took a deliberately long way and many turns to confuse him. Only that Tony had a GPS tracker on him, which seemed to avoid these people’s notice.  Tony hoped that they ‘d continue to forget to search him.

Finally the car stopped and the blindfold was taken off him. Tony could see that the car parked outside a modest-looking large wooden lodge. Tony was led into the lodge and he immediately feel that there was something unusual in the air, similar to what he felt in the hedge. He wondered why. He also noticed that the decoration in the living room was expensive, with a lot of original art , and an interior design coming from some architecture magazines. There were several changelings in formal wear. They were huge enough that they looked like thugs despite the clothes, but maybe it was the point.

Valdemar Tykkio seemed to feel his confusion and explained, “This house is not located the mortal realm. We have it built in the hollow so that we can avoid notice.”

Tony  knew that a hollow was a place you craft in the hedge. It must have taken a lot of resources to build one like this, but he wasn’t surprised. He was quite certain there was a huge organization behind Valdemar Tykkio.

“You promised that I’d know more. Now I come,“ Tony said.

“Well, I won’t be a good host if I don’t serve you first,” she said, and waved to a changeling. The changeling nodded, disappeared, took out a cup of coffee for each. Tony sipped it and found that it was exactly the way he liked. He wondered what more they knew about him.

“Our organization, you see, is one dedicated to preserving and exploring knowledge. about the faeries, magic and anything that could help the fight against the faeries. I think you can see the need for it.”

“It’s interesting.”

“We have a long history, which makes us an expert on the faerie knowledge. I’m sure you can do a lot with your wealth and intellect in your lifetime, but why taking the longest way?” Valdemar Tykkio said, “I know you ‘re looking for goblin’s fruit” She casually threw a a brown nut shining blue light on the table. “You can see if this fits your research.”

Tony hid his surprise well and checked on the fruit. After careful examination, he was sure that he was shown the real thing. He put on a poker face anyway, because he knew that any weakness would be exploited mercilessly. “You have an interesting collection.”

“So why not join us?”

“What’s the price?”

“Of course you have to sign a pledge with us to secrecy. It’s only reasonable right?”

“Do you have the full text? I need to have it checked up by my lawyer.”

“Now, now. You think too much like a businessman. And remember, secrecy?”

“You like me as a businessman.”

“Think of it. It’s a valuable chance. We’ve rejected so many people and now we choose you.””

“Darling, no contracts, no agreement.”

“All right,” Valdemar Tykkio said. She handed a scroll to him.

When Tony rolled open the scroll and read the words, his heart sunk. The pledge required him to hold utmost secrecy about everything of and from the organization with death at the utmost price, and he had a duty to enforce the secrecy. He half expected this, but it still made him frown and said, “No way.”

Valdemar Tykkio  laughed. “Have you considered that you know too much to be safe from us?”

“Have you considered that I won’t just come to you without precaution? Remember that I’m Tony Stark.”

Valdemar Tykkio looked hesitated. Then she put on a smile and said, “You’re just bluffing.”

“You may have the magic, but I have the technology.”

She looked straight into Tony and Tony did his best to look calm. Then she said, “You don’t worry that we may declare you an enemy?”

“Threats don’t work well on me. If you touch my people, you’ll regret it,” Tony said.

“All right, calm down. Do you want me to show you around?”

“It seems that we can’t reach a conclusion yet. I’m afraid I have work to do and need to return early.”

“See you later then,” Valdemar Tykkio said. She led him to the car outside, blindsided him again, and took him back to the meeting place. When the car disappeared in his view, he called for Happy to bring him back.

When he returned to the Mansion, he saw that Steve was concentrated on reading a book in the living room. He quietly sat beside him and pressed a kiss on Steve. Steve turned to him and their lips touched. Tony deepened the kiss, tempting Steve to be willing to be explored. They kissed for quite awhile before they needed to gasp for their breath.

“Waiting for me?” Tony asked.

Steve smiled, “Not exactly. I just enjoy reading a book in my rare free time.”

“What’re you reading?”

“Big Sleep.”

“A knight on errant walking the mean street? It fits you a lot. Why don’t you put on a fedora hat and a trench coat sometime?”

“I’ll let you know that they were casual wear in my time. Nothing extraordinary.”

“It only makes me want to see more of it.”

“You just want kinky role play,” Steve said, smiling.

Tony raised an eyebrow. “I never expect you to speak the word kinky.”

 “I’m a cop. Before that I was a soldier. I’m not an innocent.”

“So does it mean that you’ll indulge me?”

“Hey, I don’t say that,” Steve playfully patted Tony’s head, but he didn’t refuse straight away, which Tony counted as a win. When the night was deeper, they returned to their room together, hand in hand.

When Steve slept, Tony looked at him and found that he was smiling. He promised to be more open to Steve and he’d hold it. An invitation to possible supply of abundance of knowledge might be great, but it wasn’t worth going for a secret life and hiding an important part from Steve. It might be a valuable chance, but Tony trusted himself that he could have achieved what he wanted with time.

In a place Tony didn’t see, Valdemar Tykkio received a phone call and answered, “Yes, I let him go as what you instructed. Yes, I’ working toward it. Of course it’ll succeed. It’s your plan.” After the other side hung up, she  looked at the mirror and saw a cruel smile forming on her face. “Tony Stark, you think you’re so clever?”

Her plan was in action. The gear were moving. When the day came, everyone would finally realize that who was the actual winner.  She smiled again, this time with satisfaction. Then she went to her bed and rested.  


* * *

  
Tony slipped out of his bed and went to the study. Although he wouldn’t show it, the threat to his people worried him and he would do everything to keep them safe. The tracker he secretly left inside the hollow should have done its job and he hoped he’d get more valuable information from it. He switched on his laptop and busily typed, analyzing the raw data. Then he hacked into several database and altered the information. With patience and time, Valdemar Tykkio and her boss would know the price of threatening his people.  


* * *

  
Steve could see that Tony seemed tense at the breakfast table. He wasn’t given a chance to talk to Tony the previous night, and this didn’t seem to be a suitable time. Breakfast time was supposed to be relaxing, not discussing life-altering choice.

Steve waited for a moment to wait for Tony to tell what was troubling him. Then he asked, “Is something wrong? Your company? or...”

“My company’s good. Pepper pretty much runs it, and my input is not necessary.”

“So what’s troubling you?”

“Nothing. Well, I’m just wondering when I can get you into a noir role play.”

“You have a trench coat fetish, and you don’t have the leg to be a femme fatale.”

“Really?” Tony made a face and they laughed. Although Tony still refused to tell Steve what was troubling him, but Steve had the patience to wait.

When Toy left for work, Steve went to visit Sam because today he had the night shift. They played basketball together, where Sam proved to be a formidable opponent. It was good exercise and Steve commented on Sam’s skill, which Sam said, “It got me into college. Besides, kids love it.”

They had a good time together and finally Steve asked, “Do you think working within the system work?”

“Well, if I don’t believe it, I’ll quit my job. The fact is, it’s a crapsack world. Politicians are useless or corrupted. People can be really selfish. But if you don’t do your job, it’ll only make the world worse. What, you’re thinking of quitting?”

“I’m not sure I have done my job well.”

“It’s hardly for me to judge, but a good cop is rare and needed everywhere, and so far you’re one.”

“Thanks,” Steve said.

“Well, Aisha’s your psychiatrist, right? Why not talk to her?”

“It reminds me that I have a session scheduled with her soon. Bye.”

Dr. Habib was her usual professional self when Steve saw her. She listened to his problem and as usual, guided him toward a set of tool and Steve felt, if not more clear, at least much better.

At the end of the session, Steve asked, “Do you think that I should say no to Mystique?”

“Do you think that you’ve already made your decision inside?”

“You’re right,” Steve admitted. Then he stood up and said, “See you next time.”

When Mystique made a call, Steve told her his choice to decline and Mystique said, “I’ll respect your decision. Don’t regret though.”

“I won’t.”

After finishing work, Steve felt eager to see Tony again and was disappointed he wasn’t home. He switched on the TV and was immediately caught by the sparkling TV headline. A group of terrorists held Tony at gunpoint. He immediately rushed out of the Mansion. Happy was already there, agitated. He took Steve to the company building, where it was surrounded by people. He ran to one of the cop guarding the place, showed him his badge and said, “I’m a cop. Let me in.”

“Sorry., you’re not assigned to this case. I can’t let you enter the place. It isn’t Die Hard. Everything ‘s in control here.”

“If everything’s in control, why isn’t a rescue already launched?”

“The other staff already left the building. Only Tony Stark was up there. We’re trying to set up negotiation.”

Steve was glad that Pepper and the others were safe, but the news that Tony was up there didn’t relieve his mood.

Apparently there was no way for him to get through the barrier. Then Steve thought of a solution.

* * *

  
“I don’t think it’s a good way to treat your possible recruit,” Tony said. He was casually sitting on his comfortable chair with an amazing view outside the window. Pity that the AIM agents currently surrounding him were clearly not in the mood to appreciate it. What a waste of chance.

“Shut up,” one of the AIM agents shouted. His hand was shaking. Tony guessed that the agent was new to the job. Was he a teen? Then Tony stopped this train of thought. He couldn’t afford to think of them as people. This way lay madness and Stockholm Syndrome.

Then Tony’s mobile phone rang. He put it out and received the call. It was Valdemar Tykkio. Tony tried not to think how she got his number.

“I’m afraid it’s a bit violent. But my superior‘s a bit frustrated. Besides, …” Valdemar Tykkio said. “You shouldn’t try to meddle in our business.”

“You shouldn’t threaten my people neither.”

“You still won’t join?”

“Not under gunpoint, I’m afraid.”

“It’s not my idea, But hey, not anyone can do whatever anything one want.”

Tony quietly summoned his magic. He found that it was more difficult than usual.

“By the way, if you tried to use your magic, you might feel a bit sluggish.”

Tony quickly realized the reason for his current weakness. “Your gift?”

“Of course. Now will you cooperate?”

“A very interesting question. Let me see. The answer’s still no.”

“Then I must regrettably bid farewell to you.”

An AIM agent raised the gun at him.  At the moment Steve appeared in the room out of nowhere. Tony was surprised. Where did Steve come from?  


* * *

  
Steve knew that it would be too late if he went for the usual route to get through the cops and the media. Luckily he learned the lesson to gather mana regularly and be prepared. He rushed through the hedge, ignoring the pain,  and arrived at Tony’s office. Using the surprise of the AIM agents, he kicked the one aiming gun at Tony first.

One of the AIM agent tried to shoot Tony when he was too busy butting heads. Angry, he summoned to the most of the contract, feeling the strength rising to his body and punched the bullet away from Tony.  Then He used this moment of others’ shock to get them down. He throw one over his shoulder and punched another’ on his side of his body. When the others approached, He attacked them with Tony’s help. Finally the AIM agents were down and Steve disarmed them, calling the police down there to go up and take care of them.

“My hero,” Tony said. “You shouldn’t take the risk.”

“I only take necessary risk. Are you all right?”

“Sure.”

Still worried, Steve checked up that Tony was all right and hugged him.

Then the others entered and they needed to face the world again. Tony sighed.  


* * *

  
The media circus was alarming. The police got to them first and asked a lot of questions. They nearly couldn’t get through the mass of reporters. Luckily Pepper and Happy went to the rescue again, and arranged for them to leave without notice. For several days the media compared the kidnapping and the rescue to Die Hard. Steve was summoned to the sergeant and as usual, did a lot paperwork. The other officers jested at him for pulling a John Mcclane but a week later everything went to a level approaching normal. But not everything was all right. Valdemar Tykkio  was never found. It became a sting in Tony’s heart.

When they finally returned to the Mansion, they leaned on each other and sat on the sofa.  
“I’m glad that you’re all right,” Steve said.

“You should trust me more”

“And you’d be more open.”

“All right.” Then they both smiled at each other.

Tony kissed Steve. He ‘d worry about the media exposure later.

 

  
 


End file.
